Lullabyes

So I've been listening to Eric Whitacre's new piece for choir and piano over on his blog. (scroll to the second entry down, it's in the flash player there) The piece is just incredibly beautiful. Although I think it lacks the complexity of some of his other pieces, it doesn't really need anything more than what he put. It's rich and beautiful and really captures the lyric of Kipling's text well. Apparently he submitted it for an animated movie by Disney but it was rejected, which just shows how far Disney has fallen lately (Pixar completely excluded...Wall-E was awesome and I think the score is Oscar-worthy). Just because something isn't thoroughly modern doesn't mean it won't resonate with younger viewers. In fact, I think that this music would probably help more people come to understand the underlying message of Disney films better than most of the redone pop tunes that have been in vogue lately. Here are the lines that begin Ruyard Kipling's story The Seal Lullaby:

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

Where billow meets billow, then soft by thy pillow;
Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.

Just in printed form I can feel the slow calm of the waves, lapping at the rocks beyond the breakers where the seals come to rest after a long night of fishing. According to Whitacre the studio wanted to go for something "more hip-hop." While I definitely agree that hip-hop has it's place, I can't see how it could match with the serenity evoked by the lyric. Whitacre's music pefectly adapts to it...and he even took steps to make it sound more theatrical (with some brilliant Elfman-esque chordal shifts) and I think it has a beautiful sonic feel. I've been experimenting with writing my own lullaby, based upon sailors on the sea. I think that the ocean is one of the most beautifully serene places in the world to be, but its vastness has a distinct loneliness accompanying it. That and leaving your family behind with no real knowledge of your return has to be taxing on the psyche. Either that or I've been watching too much Deadliest Catch again. But I know there's an idea in there to be mined...all it takes is some time and effort.

Something that I've written so far:

Northern star, your flickering arms may guide us
across the waves, to land on foreign shores.
With humble moon, to pull the waves alongside us
until we moor upon our docks once more...

The ones we love, they wait with candles burning
within the windows, that face out towards the wharf.
Unyielding night, has swallowed up our rigging
and so we sleep, waves rock us back and forth.

the sky is red, and twilight is upon us
no storm in sight, and yet we feel alone.
I see the light, from the house upon the breaker
to reunite, again we have found home.




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Now playing: Brigham Young University Singers - Sleep
via FoxyTunes